Dehydrating To Preserve the Harvest

Dwarfed Blue Curled Kale dried and blended to a  powder is great to add to smoothies

The dehydrator is running almost every day during this time of year. It's a great way to preserve fruits, vegetables, and herbs.   Herbs I pick in the morning, rinse, and pat dry.  I put them in the dehydrator at the lowest setting. You can store them in ziploc bags or canning jars. I remove the leaves from the stems after they are dried.

Oregano

Winter Savory

Dried Strawberries are a favorite snack.

The strawberries are sliced into a solution of water and lemon juice 4:1.  You can also use lime juice or pineapple juice.  Fruits I dry at 130 - 135 degrees.  I rotates the trays throughout the process.  When done they should still be pliable.  Dehydrated strawberries are irresistible!

The finished product.  It's best to take the fruit off trays right when you turn off the dehydrator to prevent sticking.

Store in an air tight container.

Pretreating Fruit

Dipping fruit in a pretreatment prevents them from oxidizing.  The fruit will brown, lose some Vitamin A and Vitamin C during oxidization.  Lemon juice makes an excellent natural pretreatment.

Use 1 cup of lemon juice to one quart of water

It is best to not leave the fruit in the dip for more than 10 minutes.

Always use high quality produce picked when ripe.

Dried white peaches, principe tomatoes, and pears

Fun Dehydrated Products:

Zucchini and kale can be dried into chips. Season with your favorite spices. 

Dried pears are amazing! 

Dehydrated Pears: A Sweet Snack! 

White fleshed peaches are amazing dried. They are to soft to can.

Dried peaches

Apple rings.  Try dipping one side in cinnamon and sugar before drying.

Spinach and kale can be dried and then powdered to add to smoothies

Peppers can be dried and blended until powdered and used to make you own chili powder.

Fruit leather. I add applesauce to sweeten. It also helps with the consistency and makes a better product.

Dry flowers for decorating projects.

Dried Tomatoes

These are wonderful to add to a homemade or frozen pizza.  Slice any tomato and sprinkle with a small amount of brown sugar, basil and oregano.  Using colorful heirlooms makes these simply gorgeous.

Add caption

Get that dehydrator out and start preserving your harvests.  

Gooseberry Jam

Gooseberries are not very familiar to North Americans but Europeans are very familiar with the gooseberry.  They have been grown for hundreds of years and are the perfect addition for the homesteader or backyard gardener.  Hopefully this delicious jam encourages you to plant a few bushes.  Cultivating and planting are easy and this is a low maintenance deer proof beautiful bush.

Growing Gooseberries

For jam, gooseberries should be soft and ripe.  Gooseberries can be either green or red.  I prefer the red because it makes a beautiful jam.  This recipe can be doubled.  It is a no pectin recipe because gooseberries are naturally high in pectin, but be sure to follow cooking instructions so it sets.

Makes 4 half pints

6 cups gooseberries ( tails and stems removed)
water or red currant juice
4 cups sugar
Pinch of salt

1.  In a large stainless steel pot, simmer gooseberries, covered in a little water or red currant juice.  Mash if desired

2.  When the berries have softened, add in the sugar and salt.


3.  Bring to a boil.  Boil uncovered for 10 or 15 minutes stirring occasionally until one of three things happens.  Actually all three will happen just decide how you will determine when the jam reaches gel stage.
1 .  Jam reaches gel stage 220 F use a kitchen thermometer. 
2.  Bubble change in texture; they become glossier and slower to pop.  
3.  The jam sheets off a spoon rather than drips.

Bubbles before gel stage

The bubbles when close to gel stage are glossier and slower to pop.

4.  Remove jam from heat skim if desired.

5.  Fill hot jars to 1/4 inch from the top, wipe rims, and seal.

6.  Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.  Add 10 minutes for high altitude areas.

7.  When finished processing, remove the canner lid and allow to sit for 10 minutes then remove jars from the water bath canner.

8.  ENJOY your delicious unique Gooseberry Jam!

Variation:-black currant jam substitute 1/2 to 1 cup black currants for 1/2 to 1 cup gooseberries.  This jam is similar to Jostaberry Jam.  The jostaberry bush is a cross between gooseberries and black currants.

Finished Gooseberry Jam!  I remove the rings for storage.

  

Growing Loganberries

Loganberries are a cross between a blackberry and a raspberry so they are one of the hybrid berries.  What is a hybrid berry?  Well it doesn't occur naturally and must be cross pollinated to be produced.  While these berries may be found at farmer's markets they are not typically found in grocery stores.  They are perfect for the berry enthusiast and will be productive in the home garden.  

Loganberries are named after James Harvey Logan, who was an amateur breeder of raspberries and blackberries. He discovered this natural hybrid growing in his garden in California in the 1880s, and named it after himself.  (BBC Gardener's World)  

The fruit of loganberries resemble a raspberry in appearance but are larger.  They ramble like a wild blackberry. The ripe berries are a beautiful jewel tone of reddish purple.

Loganberries have trailing thornless vines although there are varieties with thorns.  The have a staggered ripening period and the fruiting season can last up to 2 months.

Cultivating Loganberries

Choose a sunny location with loamy soil that drains well.  Mix organic matter into the soil prior to planting.  A trellis will help keep canes and fruit off the ground.  Be careful when tying canes up they break easily.  

The first year no pruning will be required.  Fruit is born on 1 year old canes and then the canes die so you can prune the cane down to the ground after fruiting or prune it the following spring. Try to keep only 10 to 12 canes per bush.

Each spring clean up plant debris around the bushes.   Sprinkle a complete dry organic fertilizer around the bush and spread a layer of compost on top.  When buds appear water in fish emulsion and kelp.

Loganberries like a blackberries retain the core when picked.  They can be used in any recipe for raspberries or blackberries.  Loganberries make delicious jams, jellies, and syrups.  Try them in muffins, cobblers, and crips and you won't be disappointed.

I love cultivating berries so the loganberry is part of my berry garden which includes the more commonly knowblackberries, raspberries and strawberries but the lesser known gooseberries, jostaberries, tayberries, Marion berries, boysenberries, and elderberries. 

Preventing Curly Top in Tomatoes

Tomatoes are the one crop I look forward to the most in my garden.  I know I'm not alone in loving homegrown tomatoes.  Tragically tomatoes are disease prone and at the mercy of many pests. Curly top is a disease transmitted by and insects so you are dealing with both pest and disease.

  

To deal with curly top you need to understand how the disease is transmitted to the tomato plant.  As the grasses in surround areas dry up leafhoppers, who are the lovely little vector for curly top virus, leave the fields and come to your much greener garden to feed.  They feed on the juices of a plant and can infect your tomatoes with curly top. So leafhoppers vector the virus we call curly top.

Curly top is a virus that spreads throughout the whole plant and unfortunately there is no cure.  You must ruthlessly remove the plant.  Leaving it in the garden will allow other insects to feed on the infected plant and spread the virus to other plants.

Leaves of infected plants twist and curl upwards.  They become stiff and leathery.  Sadly they eventually turn turn yellow, then brown and die.  Curly top can also effect melons, spinach, beets, and beans. 

To help prevent curly top remove weeds around your garden and control pests. 

Since most of my tomatoes are heirlooms that I start from seeds, it is very discouraging to have to tear out a plant.  I do usually start 2 or 3 of every variety.  I plant one or two in the garden depending on the variety and keep one the potting shed incase I lose one to curly top.  Generally I only lose 2 or 3 plants out the the 30+ tomatoes I plant to curly top.

Caging and Covering Tomatoes

After tomatoes are in the ground, prepare a cage to cover the tomato.  I use a light to medium weight floating row cover cloth to make shades for the tomatoes. Floating row covers allow a % of light to penetrate and are used to protect from insect damage and frost damage. Cut the row cover cloth a couple inches bigger than your cage.  Use clothes pins to secure.  Start with the shade cloth as close to the tomato plant as possible.  Move the cloth up as the plants grow.  Remove completely when the tomato is growing out of the cage.

I do use a preventative spray to discourage leaf hoppers and various diseases. The sprays are organic and safe for beneficial insects if used properly.  If you don't want to spray you can cover your tomatoes with a row cover.  Some studies have shown that putting a shade cloth over the tomatoes makes it more difficult for the leafhoppers to find them.

Disease preventing strategies

Today I weeded around the tomatoes gave each plant a drink of fish emulsion, and spread a layer of mulch around each plant. Prune off any lower leaves that don't look good. Put them in a plastic bag in the trash just in case they have a fungal or bacterial disease. I did my first spray this morning which will ward off leafhoppers, tomato horn worms, and prevent some diseases if done relgularly.

In a 1 gallon sprayer I add the following depending on what problem you are having.  For example if you don't have horn worms don't add Spinosad if blight is not a problem don't add Serenade.  The neem and kaolin clay are deterrents for the leaf hopper that spreads the curly top virus:

•  1/2 cups of Kaolin Clay  this is a deterrent for any chewing or sucking insect. Add this first with half the water and shake. Then add the remainder of the water and the following.  If you do not have all these that's fine.  Use what you have.

•   2 Tbsp of Neem/ gallon-  Neem is an insecticide and fungicide.  It is systemic and taken up by the plant an spread throughout the plant tissues.  When insects feed on the plant, they are inhibited from molting and laying eggs.  It is also a repellent.  It kills a wide range of insects and is not harmful to beneficial insects because they must ingest it in order to be affected.

•   4 Tbsp of Spinosad-  Spinosad is bacteria that is very effective on caterpillars, thrips, aphids and other pests. Good for tomato hornworms so only use if you have hornworms

•  4 Tbsp of Serenade- Serenade is a bacterium,, bacillus subtilis, that prevents fungal diseases.  It must be used prior to the pathogen being present. Fungus diseases include mildews, blights, wilts, and anthracnose. Only use if blight is a problem

     2 Tbsp of Kelp  a great foliar spray

Mix all this and you are ready.  I also use this on potatoes, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, melons and corn. 

These are the organic options for disease and pest control. Please do not buy the Pyrethrin brand shown it has an additive that makes it not approved for organic gardens.  Garden's alive and Peaceful Valley have one that is only Pyrethrin.

Codling Moth

This year in my county we will have at two generations of codling moth to deal with. The codling moth lays its eggs on the fruit.  When the larvae emerge, they burrow into the fuit to eat the seeds.  Larvae exit the fruit and pupate in cocoons in the bark of the trunk.

I have made the decision to only use organic sprays and have had very good results.  Our first generation is timed at around May 18th.

The following information is provided by USU Pest Advisory.  I have include the link at the end of the post.

There are two options provided for your first application. “Option A” is standard procedure, where you apply the insecticide you choose at the date provided. May 18th  you apply your first spray and depending on which spray you use reapply at the appropriate time. May 29th marks the period of greatest egg hatch for the first generation.  The date of the second generation egg hatch has not yet been determined.

Option A

May 18th first spray

May 29th period of greatest egg hatch

“Option B” uses horticultural oil (at 1% concentration in water) as the first application on May 16th, followed by an insecticide application about 2 weeks later. This option saves one general insecticide spray because the oil kills (smothers) all codling moth eggs laid up to that point, and ideally before any of them have hatched.

For either option, it is recommended to repeat the application to protect fruit at least through the “period of greatest egg hatch” 

ORGANIC
azadirachtin (Safer BioNeem)	Fair to Good	7-10
codling moth virus (Cyd-X)	Good (if populations are low)	7	works best when used at beginning of generation
kaolin clay (Surround)	Fair	7	produces a protective barrier
oil (All Seasons Oil, EcoSmart, Neem)	Fair	3	recommended for first application of the generation only
pyrethrin (Ortho Fruit Spray; Fertilome Fruit Tree Spray; Safer End All)	Good	3-5
spinosad (Monterey / Fertilome Spinosad)	Good	7-10	max 6 applications

For strategies on how often to spray for codling moth, it will depend on whether you are using organic or non-organic options, AND how heavily your apples or pears have been infested with codling moth in the past.

Organic production options (other than bagging)

• High fruit damage in past years:
  • Apply the first application for either Option A (insecticide) or Option B (oil).
  • For Option A, repeat twice, spaced 7-10 apart, for a total of 3 applications in the first generation.
  • For Option B, apply insecticide at the listed date and re-apply 7-10 days later.
  • When the “start date” for the 2nd generation is provided, spray every 7-10 days until Sept. 15.
  • Pick a different product to use for each generation.
• Low fruit damage in past years:
• Apply the first application for either Option A (insecticide) or Option B (oil).
• When the “start date” for the 2nd generation is provided, spray every 10-14 days until Sept. 15.
• Pick a different product to use for each generation.

I actually combine Neem, Spinosad, kaolin clay with kelp in my spray.  For a second spray you can use pyrethrin.  Be sure to follow instructions on label especially with pyrethrin so you do not kill bees and beneficials.  A no spray option is to bag you apples as you thin.  Here's to a healthy harvest.

Fruit Tree Pest Advisory

Organic Orchard Care: Monitoring for Pests and Disease in Spring

 A good time to do some monitoring and deal with early pests in the orchard is right after petal fall and as leaves emerge. 

Black cherry aphids

Aphids

Aphids can infect all fruit trees.  Different species affect different trees.They feed on the juices of plants.  Their saliva is toxic and causes curled leaves and deformed fruits. 

Host:   Apples, pears, peaches, nectarine, plums, and cherries

What to do:

As soon as the leaves emerge examine the undersides for aphids.  Look for the tiny pests at the base of the leaf.  They usually appear in clusters. Using a magnifying lens is helpful.   It is important to treat your trees before aphid feedings starts to curl the leaves. Once the leaves curl the aphids are protected from the sprays and much harder to get rid of.

After examining leaves from different levels of the canopy, if you see aphids you have a couple organic options:

•  Strong spay with a hose nozle to dislodge if infestation is light.  Repeat every 2-3 days
• Prune heavily infested sections if aphids infestation is small
• One of the following organic spray options
•  Insecticidal soap 
• 1% horticultural oil
• Neem Oil or
• Pyrethrin

Be sure to thoroughly cover the tree with the spray focusing on the undersides of leaves.  Horticultural oils and insecticidal soaps smoother the pest and must contact the aphid.

Types of Aphids

Apples are host to  rosy apple aphid and green apple aphid.  Green apple aphid is more common and populations begin to increase until the warmer summer months.  They remain in the orchard the entire season producing many generations.

The rosy apple aphid tends to be more of a problem in spring.  This aphid migrates out of the orchard to weed hosts in late June and July.

On peaches, green peach aphid is most common.  Their populations grow rapidly in the spring and cause distorted, twisted, and yellow foliage.  They eventually migrate out of the orchard in summer to weed hosts.

Plums and apricots suffer from mealy plum aphid and plum leaf curl aphid.

On cherries the black cherry aphid is the most common.  You can spot these on suckers at the base of the tree first. Black cherry aphids are easy to spot because of their color.

 Using a dormant spray when the sap begins to flow and buds start to swell is important in managing aphids.  This applications smothers overwintering eggs.  If you applied a dormant spray you should still check out your orchard early spring and look for aphids.

If you sprayed with a dormant spray acids may emerge  on only a few twigs and  you can prune those off to prevent spreading.

I f you have a large infestation an organic spray is best. After leaves emerge I use the following mixture in one spray application:

• Neem Oil
• Fish emulsion
• Kelp
• Repeat Neem or Horticultural oil if aphids are still a problem

For a heavy infestation if leaves have started to curl I use Pyrethrin.

Western Flower Thrips

Host:   peach, nectarine, apricot, and plum


If you had deformed fruit last year then you probably had thrips.  They are visible with a magnifying lens but easily overlooked with the naked eye.  Thrips feed on the developing fruit from bloom time til petal fall.


Organic option:  Spinosad  sold as Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew

Spray in the evening.  When wet, Spinosad is toxic to bees but once dry it will not harm them.  One good application should work.

Apple Powdery Mildew

 Three conditions are necessary for a fungus to become active:  a proper host, specific weather conditions, and presence of the fungal spores.

The host for powdery mildew is apple and pears.  Powdery mildew is caused by a fungus that overwinters on twigs or a secondary infection when spores colonize a neighboring tree. New infections will reoccur if you had a previous infestation.  The fungal spores act as an inoculum and begin colonizing in early spring depending on weather conditions.  Powdery mildew can damage twigs, leaves, and fruit buds.

Begin monitoring for powdery mildew when buds are at tight cluster to open cluster or the pink stage. Look for mildew with a magnifying glass.  It is much easier to see.

If powdery mildew has been a problem treat 7-14 days after bloom with a sulfur spray.

Peach Tree Borers

Signs of peach tree borers are gummy exudates near the base of the tree and sawdust and frass where they bordered into the tree.

The borer larvae overwinter in the tree canopy.  In early spring, they emerge and feed on new foliage.  Once the shoots start to expand and grow they bore into the shoots.  

It is important to treat while the larvae are feeding on foliage.  After petal fall apply Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis). This bacteria must be ingested by the insect to be effective and is therefore is safe for bees.